Hanako Games

Date Warp - Silver Edition

#1 by hanako - May 9 2014

So I don't jam up the Black Closet topic with other things:


Date Warp:

I currently have two different people building possible UIs, because I want to replace the one I originally did. I'm not really sure what I want so we're experimenting. If I like both I'll eventually post them for votes. Too early to show anything on this subject.

Extra graphics are being made for trading cards - as with Magical Diary, I don't want to use in-game graphics for the cards on this title. However, I'm probably NOT going to get special art just for achievements, I don't think they would add much to the game atmosphere.

CG artist said she would not be available until mid-May. I want at least one more CG and possibly some upgrades to some of the existing ones, but we have no actual plans in place yet.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#2 by chudah - May 12 2014

I'm really liking the new background art for TRT, the shading (and I don't know how to word it, but maybe softness of the colors?) compliments the character images a lot better. Big thumbs up for that.

Take your time on Date Warp. I haven't played it yet and fully plan on purchasing it once it goes up for sale on Steam, but I'd like to play the best version possible, and I'm patient.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#3 by Hoosha - May 22 2014

Um what? Trading cards? Did you say trading cards? You're making TRADING CARDS?

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#4 by FruitySnooty - Jun 6 2014

'Extra graphics are being made for trading cards'

WHAT
TRADING CARDS

MY INNER POKEMON CARD COLLECTOR IS CALLING

I must know of these trading cards.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#5 by Franka - Jun 6 2014

It's a Steam thing.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#6 by kardwill - Jun 13 2014

hanako:

So I don't jam up the Black Closet topic with other things:

The Royal Trap:

As you can see, I am in the process of having the backgrounds replaced.

Cool. I love this game, but many original backgrounds were on the bland side, and clashed with the character art. The one you show here is real nice, though.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#7 by hanako - Jun 24 2014

Date Warp:

I have two sets of UI, one complete and one almost-complete. I think I'm going to just take the one and save the other for another game*, but it depends on how it works out in code.

I have a sketch for the big exciting new CG thing. There may be a second one coming as well!

The trading cards have been done for a while.

Haven't yet written the plot adjustments because we've been in a Black Closet push and some of it will depend on how the CG turns out.



* ... yes, I have another game I want to write, which is currently under the title of Buried Lilies ~a delicacy of spirit ~ but may not keep that. and I'm trying to resist working on it because I'm supposed to do Wolf Hall next! However, there is the small problem that Spiky may be sufficiently burned out after Black Closet and all the Steam Stuff that he may need a breather... I don't know yet, that's all I'm saying!

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#8 by hanako - Jul 4 2014

Switched over to actively upgrading Date Warp now.

Good news - Spiky made a code thing work, so the engine upgrade of Date Warp is coming along. The big important new CG is done. There may be another one coming, maybe not.

Bad news - Artists continue to disappear without warning. Hopefully they'll show up again... eventually...

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#9 by hanako - Jul 20 2014

Should I show you bits of the new Date Warp UI, or will that just inspire "But I wish it was THIS instead!!"? It's not really that exciting, but we've moved in more of a sci-fi direction and less of a steampunky one, since the game really isn't that.

Game has been ported into a much newer version of RenPy. The entire UI is being replaced (it's not all done yet) and all the sections with special visual effects have to be checked and tweaked. A couple of new plot additions still need writing. I think we're not getting a second CG, but the new one is pretty awesome, so.

New backgrounds for TRT Enhanced are about half complete.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#10 by chudah - Jul 22 2014

Quick question, once TRT is updated re-released, how will I get the updated version? I have the original download email (the links no longer work), but not the receipt email.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#11 by hanako - Jul 22 2014

I don't currently know.

For one thing, until the art is actually finished, we can never be sure that the art will be finished. Sometimes things go wrong.

I'm not even sure at this point whether it will be a replacement for existing owners, or a separate deluxe version (which would have a cheap upgrade option for existing customers, as Cute Knight did when it got the graphical overhaul). There are several logistical reasons why it might make more sense to keep them separate. If we did that, we could put out the new build in HD only and leave the existing version available for people who had a smaller screen and/or wanted a smaller download.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#12 by chudah - Jul 22 2014

I understand....maybe I'm just getting a little excited. I'd be fine with paying for an upgrade, seems reasonable considering the new artwork added.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#13 by hanako - Aug 16 2014

We are now finally (don't ask, just don't ask) ready to seek testers for the new version of Date Warp.

Things That Are New (that you will actually notice):

New UI
New options involving sleeping with Linds
New finale CG
New special true ending epilogue

Things you should not actually notice, but should comment on if anything funny happens:
Massive engine overhaul and a lot of technical stuff

If you already own the game and would like to help us test the new version please email [email address removed] with your receipt/order information. At the moment we're focusing the testing on Steam, so this will primarily be to get a Steam beta key. If you are NOT a Steam user and still desperately want to help test and look for bugs and things, let me know in email.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#14 by hanako - Aug 19 2014

The Date Warp Steam build has been bumped to fix a couple of bugs; at least one more set of fixes is coming soon.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#15 by FantasyFan - Aug 20 2014

I don't know if this has been fixed yet, but I found a bug when reloading a saved game (I saved right before the new Linds menu because I wanted to try both options). It wouldn't let me take a screenshot, but I got a message that said "The savegame scrutinizer was made uneasy by certain aspects of your saved game - most importantly, and then there's a whole bunch of code.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#16 by hanako - Aug 20 2014

Spiky's written a whole new savegame system that is doing extra error-checking to protect against malicious save hacks, but any variable that was accidentally left out of the proofing system will throw errors like that on load (to warn that there might be something wrong with the save). So if you see any of those, we need to know what variable name is involved so we can fix it.

(Printscreen should work?)

It's possible it's already been fixed, since once the variable is created it will always throw that error on loading that save even if, in future games, the variable will be created safely.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#17 by FantasyFan - Aug 21 2014

Tried printscreen, didn't work. However, after that message, the game continued as normal.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#18 by Spiky Caterpillar - Aug 21 2014

If you're getting savegame scrutinizer warnings (which should be a little clearer in the newest version), selecting the option to save the log will create a file called 'nopickles.warnings' in your save directory which has the relevant information. (Most of the time, all I actually need is the variable name)

The hugeness of today's update is me replacing the OP with one encoded at higher resolution. I'm still a little unhappy with the video encoding, but I don't know if the glitches that bother me bother anyone else. Other changes - when you go out into the forcefield on Rafael's path, the animation should be a little bit less laggy, and it now uses an MMX/SSE-capable pygame on amd64 Linux.

hanako:

It's possible it's already been fixed, since once the variable is created it will always throw that error on loading that save even if, in future games, the variable will be created safely.

It's usually actually the variables I've taken <i>out</i> that warn you forever - if I've just forgotten the sanity checks for it then once the sanity checks are added the old save will load without complaint.

I think the biggest change that remains to do is probably figuring out how to autodetect buggy GL drivers (again. It changes slightly each time the engine changes, which is why I try to avoid updating the engine as long as possible.)

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#19 by hanako - Aug 26 2014

So the new Date Warp is pretty much done but we can't launch it because of slow Steam processes and needing to have everything approved and rubber-stamped, so probably next week sometime? Dunno.

We haven't pushed the new fullbuild out for download yet either - getting around to making the new demo at the moment.

Re: Updates In Progress (existing games)

#20 by hanako - Sep 2 2014

Back from convention and miserably sick, but we're trying to get this steam thing going. I currently have the page up and set to Coming Soon status, which means that the game can't be played on Steam yet but you CAN go and add tags (or leave a review if you have a beta key). So if anyone wants to leap in and helpfully stick tags like Sci-fi and Visual Novel on it, here you go.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/301380

Now let's hope I don't screw anything up because I have such a bad cold!